Making the world better? Really?

This blog originated from an Amazon book review of Gretchen Rubin's book, the Happiness Project. The reviewer lamented that Rubin should have focused on making the world a better place instead of focusing solely on her personal happiness.

My knee-jerk response to the reviewer was that making the world a better place was naive and idealistic. How could one person actually make a substantive difference in the world, with all its issues -- environmental degradation, wars, famine, climate change, injustice... it seems like the work of a lifetime of millions. Not a year-long project of one.

Then the self-recriminations began. My cynical attitude and sense of being overwhelmed in the face of all the world's issues is very likely an exacerbating factor in the world's woes -- we do nothing because we're pretty sure whatever we do won't matter. Well, this little blog is going to attempt to test whether the cynical attitude is justified or ridiculous.

This blog is going to go on a three-year arc, as opposed to the one-year arc that is so currently fashionable. I can not really see making a substantial contribution to the "world's well being" in the course of a year, but am going to do my best, and maybe see if I can find some friends to do so as well. Each week, I'm going to undertake a goal/action item geared toward improving the world. I will try to logically group things together and explore certain themes as part of the project.


We'll see where this takes us...